Reviews
Publishers Weekly
Starred Review, June, 2025
https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781620974117
“In this eye-opening debut study, Kadish, an American studies professor at Pace University, aims to show that MAGA-era racism is “less an aberration than a return to form” by pointing to a long history of white supremacist hoaxes in the U.S. Noting that many of the country’s major xenophobic, racist, anti-Catholic, and antisemitic movements were galvanized by “forgeries, impersonation,” and “bogus” data, Kadish explains that these hoaxes always had two goals: proving the “inferiority” of nonwhite races (which in earlier times also meant non-Protestant), and proving the existence of conspiracies against the white race (à la the “great replacement theory”). Among Kadish’s examples is the 1835 autobiography of Maria Monk, in which she claimed she had been raped by a Catholic priest while living as a nun and had fled her convent to avoid having her baby ritualistically strangled. Though revealed immediately as an anti-Catholic hoax (it was penned by the Protestant clergyman who actually fathered her child), it remained a bestseller for nearly two decades. Other examples include the work of Thomas Dixon, who wrote the novel the film The Birth of a Nation was based on, and Henry Ford’s spreading of antisemitic conspiracy theories. Kadish concludes by raising troubling concerns about how AI could lead to a “Great White Hoax era with a more thorough top-down, Soviet-style truth control.” This meticulous and captivating account makes a disturbing case that America is easily swayed by racist cons.“
Library Journal
Starred Review, April 2025
“In his first book, literary scholar Kadish (American Studies, Pace University) explores the American phenomenon he calls the “Great White Hoax.” Beginning in the 1830s through the mid-20th century, Americans feverishly consumed fake news stories and supposedly incontrovertible scientific proof of the inferiority of non-white people and conspiracies meant to promote white supremacy in the United States. These hoaxes targeted Black people, Chinese and Eastern European immigrants, Catholics, and Jews—anybody outside of the dominant white, Anglo-Saxon culture. “Viral” pre-internet newspaper articles that pushed racist lies even affected presidential elections and led to legislation based on those fake stories. To reach the widest audience possible, newspapers promoted sensationalistic narratives with little regard for the truth or facts. One early example involved the 1840 U.S. census, which purported to show that free Black people suffered from higher rates of mental illness than enslaved people. Though it was clear that faulty data led to this conclusion, many white people argued regardless that it demonstrated the inherent inferiority of Black people. The catalogue of racist hoaxes and misinformation in Kadish’s book provides a valuable template for modern readers to critically examine today’s hyper-partisan news media.
VERDICT This thoughtful and timely work will interest readers interested in American history, civil rights, and media studies.”